Golf

Séamus Power retains PGA Tour Card by the skin of his teeth

Sergio Garcia to miss Fed Ex Cup play-offs for first time as Snedeker wins in Greensboro

Brand Snedeker was victorious in the Wyndham Championship. Photgraph: Jared C. Tilton/Getty

Mon Aug 20 2018 - 08:55

Séamus Power has retained his PGA Tour card by the skin of his teeth, after finishing in 125th place in the Fed Ex Cup rankings.

With the top-125 securing playing priveleges for next year Power - who went into the Wyndham Championship in 123rd - looked set to miss out after failing to make the cut in North Carolina.

However, a final round of 70 from Sergio Garcia saw him fail to secure the top-20 finish he needed in order to qualify for the Fed Ex Cup play-offs. This meant the Spaniard finished 128th in the rankings, allowing Power to hold onto his card.

Garcia, along with Henrik Stenson, also missed out on a chance to stake his claim for Europe’s Ryder Cup team as both delivered underwhelming performances in Greensboro.

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With a tie for 20th at Sedgefield, Swede Stenson made no inroads towards automatic selection for the September 28th-30th event in Paris, despite a closing 64 that left him eight strokes behind winner Brandt Snedeker.

Garcia finished another shot behind, in equal 24th, and will head home rather than to New Jersey after missing the PGA Tour’s FedExCup playoffs for the first time.

Stenson, the 2017 Wyndham champion, observed some positive signs in his game and was pleased to see a few putts drop on Sunday.

“It’s not really been exactly the week we wanted but I had a good spell on Friday, hit some really good iron shots,” he said.

“I’ve been struggling on the greens for a few weeks so it was nice to roll a few in.

“At least a little part of what we left out there the first three days, we got that back in the final round.”

The top eight in the European standings in two weeks will automatically qualify for the Ryder Cup team to take on the United States. Captain Thomas Bjorn will pick four others.

Barring a victory at next week’s Northern Trust tournament in New Jersey, four-times Ryder Cup player Stenson will probably be reliant on Bjorn.

“I’ve been trying to focus on my game and there are some things that are good and some things that needed a bit more work. We’ll try to sort that out in weeks to come,” he said.

“Obviously we’re a little bit out of direct qualification. He (Bjorn) has got my number and I guess I’ll just have to wait next to the telephone.”

Garcia was only four shots from the lead starting the final round but did not help his cause with a closing 70.

A stronger finish would have lifted him into the Northern Trust, the first event of the tour’s playoff series, which starts Thursday.

Garcia started the Wyndham ranked 131st in the season-long points list for the playoffs and ended it 128th, outside the top 125 who qualify.

Like Stenson, eight-times Ryder Cup player Garcia seems destined to have to rely on a captain’s pick to join team Europe in Paris.

Collated final scores & totals in the USPGA Tour Wyndham Championship (USA unless stated, par 70):

259 Brandt Snedeker 59 67 68 65
262 Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tpe) 65 64 67 66, Webb Simpson 66 68 66 62
263 D.A. Points 64 64 68 67, Jim Furyk 65 68 67 63
264 Brian Gay 70 63 62 69, Ryan Moore 63 70 64 67
265 David Hearn (Can) 64 67 64 70, Ryan Armour 65 68 67 65, Nick Taylor(Can)65 67 70 63
266 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 69 68 64 65, Chris Kirk 69 65 68 64, Brett Stegmaier64 67 67 68, Harris English 66 65 67 68, Michael Thompson66 70 63 67, John Oda 63 70 67 66, Kevin Tway67 69 65 65, Billy Horschel 66 68 67 65, Rafael Cabrera-Bello(Spa)68 69 65 64
267 Doug Ghim 68 64 69 66, Brice Garnett 65 68 69 65, Henrik Stenson(Swe)68 65 70 64, Tom Hoge69 66 66 66
268 Peter Malnati 66 65 71 66, Shawn Stefani 68 68 66 66, Jamie Lovemark66 70 64 68, Danny Lee(Nzl) 68 69 67 64, Aaron Baddeley(Aus)65 67 70 66, Abraham Ancer(Mex) 64 69 64 71, Sergio Garcia(Spa)66 65 67 70, Patrick Rodgers 68 67 67 66, Jonathan Byrd64 68 67 69
269 Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 68 69 66 66, Cameron Percy (Aus) 67 67 70 65, Johnson Wagner70 66 67 66
270 Trey Mullinax 67 65 68 70, Denny McCarthy 66 67 67 70, Dylan Meyer67 68 69 66, Jonas Blixt(Swe) 69 68 67 66, Matthew Fitzpatrick(Eng)70 67 65 68
271 Billy Hurley III 68 69 68 66, Julian Suri 71 66 71 63, Keith Mitchell65 66 69 71, Blayne Barber68 69 69 65
272 Sam Ryder 72 64 69 67, Chesson Hadley 68 68 69 67, Sam Saunders66 70 67 69, Scott Piercy 70 67 66 69, Bill Haas69 68 68 67, Sang-moon Bae(Kor) 67 67 66 72, Martin Laird(Sco)69 66 65 72, Corey Conners(Can)65 69 70 68
273 Richy Werenski 68 69 72 64, Harold Varner III 66 69 69 69, Roberto Diaz(Mex)68 69 67 69, Sung Kang(Kor)65 69 69 70
274 Jason Kokrak 69 68 71 66, Scott Brown 68 65 70 71, Rory Sabbatini(Rsa)69 67 64 74, Graeme McDowell(NIrl) 70 67 70 67, Lanto Griffin69 68 68 69, William McGirt 69 68 67 70, Ollie Schniederjans64 73 70 67, Ryan Blaum67 66 69 72
275 Martin Flores 64 73 69 69
276 Jason Dufner 66 68 72 70, Hudson Swafford 67 70 66 73, Mackenzie Hughes(Can)68 68 67 73, Conrad Shindler69 68 73 66
277 Ricky Barnes 66 70 70 71, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 67 68 71 71, Xin-jun Zhang(Chn)68 67 72 70

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